eToro pledges $1M for universal basic income solutions on the blockchain

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Social trading platform eToro is kicking off a new $1 million fund to support research on blockchain use cases for reducing wealth inequality – and it is recruiting partners.

The initiative, called GoodDollar, aims to create an entirely open-source community project. The concept is to develop a blockchain-powered wealth redistribution system and lay the foundations for open, universal basic income scheme.

As part of this mission, the $1 million experiment will focus on researching ways of implementing a cryptocurrency that pays social interest to those in need.

“The success of new technologies should not be measured only by their ability to power new industries and disrupt old ones, but also on their ability to affect positive change in the world,” said eToro CEO Yoni Assia. “Technology should be used to tackle the great challenges of our time.”

With GoodDollar, eToro wants encourages experts from around the globe to rethink the existing economic framework – and use smart contracts and cryptocurrency to build on it.

“Inequality is the crucial economic challenge of our time,” Assia said. “We’re looking for experts in the fields of decentralized identity, governance, local and global adoption of financial products, and wealth distribution.”

Earlier in March, eToro closed a $100 million round of private financing. The trading platform, which touts over 10 million users, revealed it intends to use the cash injection to expand globally, and streamline its blockchain research and development unit.

A few months later, eToro unveiled plans to launch a new cryptocurrency-only exchange operations in Europe and the US. Just this week, it also launched a new standalone cryptocurrency wallet.

Now the company is looking to deliver on its promise for cutting-edge blockchain research too – and GoodDollar is an important step in that direction.

“We are on the hunt for ambassadors to help spread the word about the project, and for funders to help us deliver GoodDollar,” Assia added. “So if you’re passionate about using technology for social good, please get in touch.”